Good Riddance
Kirstin Gillibrand, once a strong voice for women’s rights, both military and civilian, quietly ended her run for president yesterday after failing to qualify for the next debate to be held in Houston. After she took Hillary’s seat in 2009, she became a firebrand in the Senate, and grew into a possible candidate to be our first woman president. The talk started early and gained momentum as Gillibrand became known for speaking out in hearings about justice and civil rights.
Then she made a gigantic mistake that pissed off a whole bushel basket full of progressives including yours truly…she aided conservative trolls by amplifying a coordinated attack and kneecapped Al Franken, another strong voice in the Senate who was voraciously anti-Trump. Franken was also well known for speaking out in hearings, dismantling the likes of Jeff Sessions and other Trump apologists. He was hated by rightwingers like Steve Bannon and Sean Hannity. AND, Roger Stone, who we’ll talk about in a moment. This is when talk of Franken running for president in 2020 also started.
When Leeann Tweeden made her accusation against Franken on a rightwing radio talk show, anyone paying attention knew it was bullshit. Tweeden, a rightwing talker herself, is famous among the testosterone set as a semi-nude model whose USO performances and magazine photo spreads have always been 
sexually suggestive, to put it mildly. As Jane Mayer reported in the New Yorker, Tweeden blatantly lied about Franken’s behavior and about the photograph of him supposedly “groping” her in an obviously posed photograph with others in the room during a USO tour in 2006. The entire attack was Trumped up (pun intended), but the damage was effective, and in those days of Me Too, sensitivity to these kinds of allegations was extremely high. Others piled on, and Franken was under withering attack.
Many people didn’t catch on (or ignored) the evidence of obvious coordination of Tweeden’s attack on multiple fronts including Roger Stone tweeting about Franken’s “time in the barrel” BEFORE Tweeden’s accusation. Yeah, THAT Roger Stone. Alex Jones also got in on the act, “predicting” a Franken sex scandal. In the following days, rightwing media everywhere blew up the accusation into a full blown scandal. Keep in mind that all of this was activity was on the coattails of an actual scandal, Roy Moore’s 40 year record of pursuing and abusing young girls. He lost his race for Senate, with Alabama voters electing a Democrat for the first time in about a thousand years.
This is when Gillibrand blundered. Seeing an opportunity to eliminate a possible 2020 primary opponent, she jumped on the conservative bandwagon on national television, calling for Franken’s immediate resignation. Pass go, pass investigations, pass an ethics hearing, go straight to home. Under pressure in the growing din, many other senators, men and women, jumped in, demanding Franken leave. With little support and the rightwing noise machine at full volume, Franken capitulated and resigned. In the cold light of today, though, almost all those senators, except for Gillibrand, admit their haste calling for Franken’s head was unwise and unfair. Conservatives, of course, remain giddy that their attack worked like a charm, hurried along by Gillibrand’s complicity.
Unfortunately for Gillibrand, though, millions of Democrats were turned off by her attack. She violated the peoples’ trust, using a serious accusation against Franken as a political tool. It IS critical that women be believed when they go public with stories of abuse both recent and long past. It is just as critical, though, that these accusations be truthful, and especially in the case of public figures like Franken, investigated and fair. Gillibrand denied Franken fairness for her own gain. That’s obvious. In doing so, though, she seriously damaged the Me Too movement and ended up dooming her own prospects of becoming the first woman president. Now she’s dropped out, failing to get out of single digits or raise enough money.
Good riddance.
My thoughts, exactly. Many of us figured out at the time what Gillibrand’s agenda was. I had been hoping to see Franken running in 2020. Glad she hasn’t made it out of the gate.
1I live in New York and to tell you the truth, I barely tolerated her since she got appointed. i can’t stand her baby voice, but now I can loathe her for a better reason. I’m mightily pissed off about Franken, and while I will not vote against Gillibrand, I will NOT vote FOR her. I’m glad she’s gone.
Thank you for putting this out there. She deserves the comeuppance.
2If there is one Democratic politician we could really use right now in our fight against trump, it’s Al Franken. His intellect, political experience and showbiz background would be invaluable. I will never forgive Gillibrand for leading the efforts to kick Franken out of office. Never.
3If I remember correctly Franken asked for a hearing. He didn’t get one. I’ve always wondered (OK, not really) the politics behind that. It always sounded like a set-up from the right.
4Lest we forget Chuck Schumer dropped the hammer on Franken. Ordered him to resign.
Both were worried about Franken out shining them. He would probably do the same to Sherrod Brown, who is another who speaks truth. And I let Sherrod know how I felt in our exchange of emails he is right on everything else, dead wrong on this one!
Schumer can not bad mouth Brown because it is clear that Sherrod and Connie Schultz, Award winning Columnist are deeply in love.
I say this as a Democrat. Schumer does not impress me. He follows along with Nancy Pelosi, who runs a tight ship.
5Gillibrand’s band wagon did not have enough wheels policy wise. Cannot figure out why she limited herself so badly unless all she wanted was at minutes in the spotlight and then withdraw in a lady like way.
6Yes, Tweden exaggerated and lied but the 7 women who came forward next are credible. From the Jane Mayer story Franken comes across, to me not as a predator but as a too handsy, too kissy, creepy guy. I think Tweeden did set him up but she knew enough about his character to figure that once she got the ball rolling, other more credible women would come forward.
As usual, the Democratic leadership panicked and dumped one of their own without a fair hearing. But I think that if there had been a fair hearing, it would have been very damaging to Franken. It is clear from the statements from the other women besides Tweeden that he was way overly attentive in a very disrespectful way.
7I was pleased that Gillibrand faced facts as realistically as Inslee and Hickenlooper, and glad that candidates such as Harris, Booker and Warren politely wished her success in her return to the Senate. This is a really nice contrast with the R clown car in 2016, where nobody dropped out, however hopeless, because each had his own sugar daddy to shake down.
8Gillibrand continues to be a strong voice for women’s rights. I welcome especially her continuing work against sexual assault and rape in the military.
I think “voraciously” in yr 2nd paragraph should be “vociferously” and/or “vigorously”. Nobody should have to eat trump.
@msb As always, I deeply appreciate your opinions and regular editorial criticism.
9Al Franken was railroaded out of the Senate, and Kirsten Gillibrand’s rhetoric was largely to blame. Obviously, Democrats have neither forgotten nor forgiven. Al Franken asked for a Senate investigation, but did not get one. If any such investigation had uncovered actual groping of women–not just being too handsy or huggy, in the manner of Joe Biden–then his resignation would have been justified. But that didn’t happen. It’s too bad–we could certainly have used Al Franken’s voice, intelligence, and experience in the current Senate.
10She revealed herself as a blatant opportunist. It backfired. If she was unable to recognize the gray areas in the frenzied height of MeToo (hint Kirsten – Republicans were jumping on MeToo like it was Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!), then too bad for your future political aspirations.
11First Franken’s picture evidence don’t seem out of line for the entertainement crowd. Joe Biden seems to be haunted by similar touchy feelie allegations.
The request for an investigation scared the Dem AND the GOP, can you sense their horror of discovery?
Finally since when can an out of state congress critter order a congress person from another state to resign? Wish it were possible, OK has two candidates for falling on the sword, mabe TX could provide two more names.
12Franken was my Senator and I liked him, but as more and more women came forward with stories of him groping them, I changed my mind, as did many Minnesotans. Groping is not a small thing, whether it’s Franken or Biden doing it. Franken is still popular enough that he might win a race here, but he wouldn’t run against either Klobuchar or Tina Smith.
Gillibrand was unfairly tarred with Franken’s ouster. She was a voice, certainly not the lone voice. She did not deny him a hearing. In the debates it was certainly nice to hear a voice put women first. When have I heard a candidate do that before? Uh, never. Gillibrand was also very good on matters of race.
13@EJ
14Why, thank you, kind sir.
Years ago, someone asked me if I were a vociferous reader. I said that I turned the pages as quietly as I could.
check out tweeden’s website…
15El Jefe, with all do respect, this is not the first time you are misspelling person’s name (last time it was Meghan Markle). It’s Kirsten, not Kristin Gillibrand. Even Trump spelled her name right 🙂
16And that respect is due!
17Oops – DUE indeed. How embarrassing. My apologies. English isn’t my first language.
18@frau – English is not your first language, yet you correct others’ spelling? Mayhaps you should pick the log out of your own eye before pointing out he speck in another’s. Just sayin’
19wrong, on so many levels, just……………….wrong. no one, not Sen. Gillibrand, nor anyone else, “forced” Franken to resign, he made that decision all by his lonesome. He was not “denied” due process, he chose to forsake it, probably because, by that time, many other women were coming forward, with their own stories about him, much more credible than Ms. Tweeden’s obvious bs.
as well, Franken himself had pointed out, long before that event, that he probably couldn’t survive a deep dive into his background, such as happens in a presidential race. that was kind of a clue right there.
20El Jefe, you are absolutely right about the log in my eye. What triggered me was the fact that I’ve noticed you spelling women’s names wrong. In my opinion, it’s not so much about spelling skills but about respect. But I have been wrong before 🙂
21@frau-So, you don’t care if I misspell men’s names or dog’s names. It’s only women’s names that matter. I get it. I’ve misspelled LOTS of names from George Snuffleupagus to Jeffrey Epstein, who I had incorrectly confused with Mark Epstein just last week. I’ve spelled Rudy Giuliani’s name probably 3 different ways. The same with Barack Obama. Hell, I’ve spelled his name “Barack”, “Barak”, “Barrack”, and “Barrak” in the past before I finally got it. I would suggest you stop looking for a misogynist behind every tree. This is a blog, er, a “professional political organization”, as JJ likes to say. We do this work late at night, early in the morning. We do it in real time on our own time with no editors. If you’re going to get “triggered” by me spelling Kirstin as “Kirsten”, then I can’t help you.
22El Jefe, I shall take a step back. I really did not want to blow this thing up. And yes, since I’m a woman, I probably notice more when woman’s name is misspelled. But I’m actually NOT a fighting feminist or spelling-nazi, you can ask Juanita 🙂
Also, being a blogger myself, I value every word written by other bloggers, and I know more than well how much work it takes, which we are doing on our own time, without pay and/or editors.
23Truce?
@ EJ
24You could stop digging that hole any old time. Frau Free has been more accurate, as well as more courteous, than you. Here we are again, watching you kicking women. I’d really prefer that to remain a Republican specialty, if the bar needs to remain that low. (It doesn’t.)
Are you trying to prove you’re right, or to persuade people to agree with you? Rudeness rarely works in the latter case.
Groping is not a small thing, but a comedian making jokes at a USO event is a small thing. As is making a dumb joke photo. As is putting your hand on somebody at a state fair that wants a photo with you. I have no reason to believe that Franken ever crossed a line into groping.
25” Here we are again, watching you kicking women.” OK, now I understand. You’re not really worried about proper usage and grammar, I piss you off because I treat WOMEN politicians the same as MEN politicians. You don’t like that. I’m supposed to be easier on the former. That’s cool, but I don’t do that. Further – I’m not trying to persuade people to agree with me; I couldn’t care less if they agree with me. I’m giving my opinion. Lastly, if you’re concerned about rudeness, you should run down to the nearest hardware store, buy a mirror, run home, mount it on the wall and look into it.
26Dear Frau Free, your spelling mistake is forgiven,
27and dear El Jefe so is yours. I absolve both of you since I am the Queen of Typos.
Thank you, Maryelle The Merciful! Long live The Queen!
28@ EJ
29Thanks for making that clear. You’re here to be right, not to persuade.
It’s your shovel. Use it as you like.
Gillibrand is a protege of Al D’Amato. When she celebrated her Clinton orchestrated appointment, D’Amato was on stage with her. She is married to a venture capitalist. We know who Kirsten Gillibrand is, and she didn’t even have a chance of winning the primary in her own home state.
For those of you who don’t remember D’Amato, look him up.
30“For those of you who don’t remember D’Amato, look him up.”
I remember good old “Al” well, that has exactly zero to do with her “offing” Al Franken from the Senate, as alleged by El Jefe who is, as I noted above, wrong in both facts & circumstances.
as Msb also noted, El Jefe still has his shovel, and an opportunity to keep digging that hole.
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